Lecrae's Deconstruction

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Bprevalon on X. On today's episode of Trueology, we will be critiquing Lecrae.

And I felt led to do this because in my past, I used to be a rapper like Lecrae is a rapper.

And if you didn't know that, well, now you know. Because from 2012 to the early part of 2020,

I was a rapper. I got saved in October of 2018, and I stopped swearing.

I stopped using profanity in my rap music. And eventually, I started making more Christian -style music with Christian lyrics and Christian connotations and things like that.

Eventually, God called me to the ministry, and I felt like I could no longer do rap music.

So I personally was convicted to give it up for the glory of God. And I walked away from it.

During the time when I was a Christian rapper, I was influenced by Lecrae. Who was a successful Christian rapper.

And I looked to him because he was very popular, he made really good music. And I felt a genuine connection with him.

But ultimately, I felt led to leave rap altogether, so I really didn't care about hip -hop in general.

So yeah, that's just a little bit about my past. But in case you don't know who Lecrae is, he is, as I said, a successful Christian rapper.

He has notably said himself that he doesn't really make Christian rap music. He's just a Christian who makes rap music.

His initial conversion came by the preaching of Pastor James White.

And no, this is not the dividing line, James White, nor is it the Apologia Church, James White.

This is James A. White, who is the senior pastor at Christ Our King Community Church.

He is a professor at Southeastern Seminary, where he teaches a class on social justice and race.

Already we can tell a little bit about him there. He is highly sought out as a consultant.

He's a speaker and facilitator of several organizations and companies on issues relating to inclusion, equity, diversity, yada, yada, yada.

You know, just a little bit of background of who converted Lecrae initially is this man. So that just gives us a little bit of an insight where we're going here.

Lecrae was influenced for some time by a Christian hip -hop group called The Cross Movement, who

I believe he joined for some time as a record label. He blew up on the mainstream from 2012 through 2016 due to his unprecedented musical success.

And we can say yay and amen for him. He made something out of himself. But in 2018, it seems like he wrote his second book.

Apparently he had a book before this, but in his second book, which is titled I Am Restored, How I Lost My Religion and Found My Faith, it seems like he gave his deconstruction history and exactly what took place and how he came out of it.

But on the recent podcast, which is what we're going to be interacting with today, he explains what led him to the deconstruction, where he is now in his faith.

He relates to those who are feeling the same way. And ultimately, he concludes that the truth in understanding

Jesus is really what freed him from what he calls Western religion.

And we'll find out exactly what he means by that as we go through this little podcast that he recently dropped.

I believe it came out about four months ago. Reasons why I want to go through this little podcast of his recently is because—well,

I have four reasons here, primarily. First reason is because Lecrae is an influencer. He has a large professing

Christian crowd that follows him. I literally used to be one of them, and there's a lot more.

And some might not be like I am, who were called to the ministry and therefore didn't have a reason to leave.

They're probably still listening to Lecrae here and there because they don't think that his music is probably all that bad. I could say so much on Christian rap, but that's probably a different topic for a different day.

But my first reason for wanting to do this critique is because Lecrae is an influencer. And if genuine

Christians are following him, we ought to know why. Second reason I have here is because, well, deconstructions are not new.

People deconstruct from all sorts of things. People deconstruct from religion. They go from being

Christians to atheists, being Christians to New Age movement -type ordeals.

People deconstruct from Christianity and become recovering fundamentalists. They follow other religions.

People deconstruct from family. They can live in a house that is filled with rules and burdens, and when they start to live on their own, they express their rebellion.

And they live free from constraints, right? People deconstruct from the things that they were taught when they were young and they're under their parents' household.

People deconstruct from societal norms and history. We have seen the modern -day black activist movement deconstruct and reconstruct history in light of liberal ideologies, right?

Reconstructions are not new. Third reason I want to go through this critique is because, you know, what if this is

Lecrae's testimony on deconstruction? What if it is a threat to biblical truth, right?

I went through the podcast, and it seems like Lecrae hinted at saying that he—well, he didn't hint.

He said openly that he was looking for truth and meaning. And I wondered, you know, was he looking to Jesus for that?

Because Jesus defines truth. You know, he said that the truth will make you free if you continue in his word.

He says he is the way, the truth, and the life. You know, Ephesians 4 .21, which

I sort of kind of based this podcast, naming it Trueology, on, is the truth is in Jesus.

I'm sure you heard that in the intro. You know, his method, I believe, was ultimately wrong.

It seemed like he was—he stepped out of Christianity, put the Bible away for some time, went to examine

Eastern traditions of Christianity, and for some reason it led him to reject,

I guess, you know, Westernized institutions that we call churches today, right? He put the

Bible away for a while to look for answers elsewhere. I don't really think that's how God, you know, designed, you know, investigations to go.

I think our investigations should primarily be first done in Scripture through the lens of Scripture and by the person of the

Holy Spirit in the word of God. I don't believe we should put it aside for some time. So, Lecrae seems to, you know, say that he did this, you know, put the

Bible aside, just reject everything altogether and go looking for the truth elsewhere.

So, you know, I think that's a threat to biblical truth, and if it is, we ought to know about it and those that are following him, because they're probably influencing to do the same thing.

Put the Bible away, go experience the truth, quote -unquote, the truth, and figure it out on your own.

His views kind of correlate to the deconstruction of theological, you know, liberalism.

I'm not entirely sure what Lecrae's truths on, well, not truths, what

Lecrae's convictions are on Scripture. I don't know whether he absolutely believes in the deity of Jesus Christ or Trinity or the infallibility of Scripture.

I don't actually know, but I think we can get a sense of what he actually believes about all those areas of theology through this podcast, so that's going to be helpful as well.

The fourth reason I have for, you know, why I want to do this critique on him is because many Christians, believe it or not, are actually dealing with the same thing that Lecrae is dealing with.

And I think that's why he makes his appeal to various kinds of people in this podcast, because, you know, depression is real.

Christians aren't immune to depression and doubts and struggles, right? The Church might be the problem sometimes.

You know, sometimes we don't address these things, and our people, you know, wither away. And, you know, they cut themselves off from the

Church, and they go seek truth and help somewhere else. And I think that's probably what

Lecrae did, and he's voicing it in what we're going to be talking about today, so I think it's important we look into that.

You know, some people get talked down to, and they become discouraged. You know, they're not allowed to ask questions or explore their doubts and things like that.

They get shut down very quickly, and, you know, that's not really healthy. And I think Lecrae, you know, well,

I know Lecrae actually addresses that, so it's going to be important for us to listen to exactly what he says and comment on it.

You know, overly inflamed fundamentalism, you know, that, you know, imposes dress standards and music standards and societal restrictions can sometimes be, well, not sometimes.

If it's overly inflamed, it's always, you know, it does more harm than good, because you put all these burdens and legalistic, you know, boundaries upon people.

And, you know, you start to treat the world like it's so separate and distinct from you in such a way that, you know, you become so separatist in your ideals and Christian polity that, you know, it shows people that, you know, you really don't know anything about how life really works.

And, you know, I'm sure, you know, as we'll go through this, you'll see Lecrae kind of voicing a little bit of that.

So I hope you'll tune in with me to continue to understand exactly why we're doing, you know, this critique today.

So in conclusion, you know, we should take deconstruction seriously. We shouldn't laugh about it.

We should take it very seriously. We shouldn't wave our hands at it like, oh, people who deconstruct aren't really

Christians in the first place. No, we should take it seriously because many of those we call our brethren are affected by what seems to be, you know, a persuasive way of dealing with internal struggles.

Depression, loss of purpose, stressful demands and hurt. People are dealing with these things, and we need to have an answer.

If we do not understand the exodus around us, you know, the mass migration of people leaving churches and why it's happening, then we may continue to perpetuate the problem.

We don't want to be one -sided. We don't want to be negative, narrow, proud, you know, ignorant.

But we want to engage our cultural trends with biblical truth and grace so our souls and the souls of others can be rescued from error.

So with that being said, I want to tell you what we're going to do today.

So what we're going to do is we're going to walk through this portion of Lecrae's podcast.

It's just audio, obviously. This is an audio podcast. You can't watch anything. So you're going to listen. I'm going to play some clips and segments from Lecrae's podcast, and we're just going to give commentary and, you know, just interact with what he says.

Now, I want to note that, you know, some of what Lecrae says in this podcast is not totally off.

You could probably agree with some of the things that he's saying. Maybe you've experienced it yourself. So, you know, throughout this, you know, critique,

I'm going to be agreeing here and there with some of the things that he says. You know, we you know, we wouldn't just like we wouldn't disagree with the

Pope of Rome if he said the sky is blue. Neither should we disagree with Lecrae when he says something that's actually right.

Right. We're going to do. We're not going to do the whole video, obviously, because I think the whole thing is like hour long.

You know, I think this episode is going to be an hour long myself. But, you know, we're just going to interact with several portions that I've selected out that I think really bring out and communicate his actual intentions.

So with that being said, let's get into it. I deconstructed around around 2016.

Yeah, 2016, I feel like it was like I was

I was struggling in 2016. By 2017, I was out. I was just I'm done, you know, with this whole particular thing.

And a lot of it had to do with a lot of backlash from it's a long journey.

I mean, that's a whole conversation within itself. You know what I mean? Like, but it's a long journey.

And I love sharing how I got there and how I overcame it. And I understand when people are de -churched or they're just not interested.

I get it. And I'm like, hey, man, walk with me, you know, walk with me.

Like, here's a step in the journey of like processing what you want to do with faith.

Like here's a step in that in that space where you got somebody who understands who's not trying to berate you, who's not trying to say, how dare you?

You know, who's just saying, listen, I understand. I understand why you want to walk away. I understand why you did walk away.

And I did, too. But. You know, I went on a journey and I found that Jesus is worth it.

Now, some of the infrastructures that people have built around Jesus should be burned to the ground. But Jesus is absolutely worth it.

So in this segment, it seems like he is saying because he has he's gone through deconstruction and he and he can understand why some people who have been de -churched feel the way that they do.

And he makes the appeal saying, you know, walk with me as if he can give some advice and solutions to the corruptions and hypocrisy that's been experienced.

But, you know, I like how he says, you know, Jesus is worth it at the end. And I commend him for that, because most people who deconstruct from their faith usually stay away from Christianity.

They never necessarily return. And, you know, if Lecrae had gone through this tough time in his life and he's realized that I should probably still follow

Christ and not live in sin, then I think we should commend him for that. Nevertheless, I would ultimately like to know what he means by Jesus.

Because, you know, the scripture does tell us that there is such a thing as another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel.

We see these in cults like Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. You know, in my personal life, you know, in my earlier walk as a

Christian, you know, I believe just about anyone who said they were a Christian. You know, this is one of the reasons why

I used to listen to charismatic preachers. I had no discernment in my earlier Christian walk.

I couldn't really tell the difference between Voddie Bockham and T .D. Jakes. To me, they were just both Christians.

And, you know, if you said, if you named the name of Christ, I just believed you and I didn't ask any questions.

Nowadays, if you tell me, you know, while I'm out in street evangelism that you're a Christian, I have some questions for you.

You know, what do you mean by Jesus? And like I mentioned earlier, we don't necessarily know what Lecrae's theological convictions are on in terms of the nature of Christ himself.

But, you know, he seems to be making his appeal here that, hey, he's able to help and advise those that have deconstructed in the past.

And so, you know, lead them to a way, lead them to a solution that is healthier than what they have gotten before.

At the end, he says, things that have been built around Jesus should be burned to the ground.

Now, I agree. Only if what he means is like a business -centered institution like what we see in like Kenneth Copeland or Joe Osteen or even in a smaller local level pastors who just do things for money.

And church is just seen as a business and, you know, tithes and offerings is really the push.

If he means something like a socially disconnected institution, like something that is just so religious that it has no external significance, then yeah,

I believe that should be burned to the ground. But if he means like formal structure, like just because there's order in a church that it should be burned to the ground, absolutely not.

I think we need pastoral leadership and singing and sermons and Sunday worship because those are things that God has instituted for our benefit to be able to, you know, be the body of Christ correctly.

You know, if he's really just saying that, you know, like a Bible -focused church that is so rigorous in its

Christian faith through explicit devotion to Scripture as absolute, then no, we shouldn't burn those things to the ground.

You know, just because we don't look like the early poor church that used to gather in houses in the first century today because of our joyous modern -day efficiencies like, you know, air conditioning and indoor plumbing doesn't mean we should burn those things to the ground.

So I honestly would like to know what he means by Jesus and exactly what he actually means by burn, you know, those kinds of things that have been built around Jesus to the ground.

But in any who, I want to continue in this next segment to just, it seems like in this next segment, he's answering the question, you know, is it okay to love

Jesus and not go to church? So let's take a listen here to see what he says. Is it okay to love

Jesus and not go to church? All right, so church as an institution in America is not the thing that God was talking about in the

Scriptures, right? Or the institution that we see in a lot of the world, right?

Church is a community, is a body of people. It is not an institution that has oratory and a stage and music and, you know, just the whole like theatrical style of it is not like that's not an ancient prescription.

That's more of a current phenomenon than it is this ancient prescription of this like theatrical oratory style.

So it seems like he's defined church here as a body of people, which is relatively true.

The Greek word for church does mean assembly of the people also means congregation. Right.

He said church is not an oratory like like a theatrical stage, you know, with music performance.

And to be honest, I could agree with that because, you know, it's not a capitalistic consumer driven thing.

It's it's not what Benny Hinn does on Sundays. It's not what Joyce Myers does. Right. Church is the body of Christ.

It's the collective assembly of believers come to worship the one true God. And that expresses itself in various means.

It's local. It's active. And I would I would really like to know what he means exactly by not oratory, because, you know, if he's talking about, you know, like self -help lectures with psychology, you know, things that you see in modern churches today that aren't really churches, you know, then, yeah, it's not an oratory where one man just gives, you know, a lecture and loads of information about how to think better.

Right. But a sermon is by nature oratorical.

Right. It's biblical to preach and speak from the pulpit. I mean, the apostle

Paul did this, you know, in Acts 13 after the reading of the scripture was done.

It says here that one of the Jewish leaders approached Paul and he said, ye men and brethren, if he have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.

Then Paul stood up and beckoning with his hand. Men of Israel and ye that fear God give audience.

So here's Paul not objecting to the opportunity to give an oratorical biblical preaching message.

Right. Here he is getting ready to convince those that are in attendance that Jesus is the

Christ, that the Old Testament law cannot save. You must repent and believe. Right. You know, when he says this is not an ancient prescription,

I wonder exactly what he truly means by that, because pastoral preaching is a gift.

Just because the beauty and artistic appearance looks different doesn't mean that it's not fundamentally synonymous to first century worship.

If this is elemental to his deconstruction, then it seems like Lecrae was off from the beginning.

I mean, it's understandable to see the modernized money making business portraying itself as a religious institution today.

But that should prompt us to have devotion first to the Bible, relying on God to direct us, not forsaking it.

Experiencing sin for a season is not an excuse to put down or replace meaningful economy where the

Bible is present and believers are coming together for the worship of God.

You know, doing outside research and then bringing those ideals into, you know, critiquing your views of the

Bible, I don't think that really works. I think anyways, it seems very interesting what

Lecrae's views are actually on church is. And I think we could continue to learn from exactly what he's trying to say here.

So let's let's continue to take a listen. We see people showing up on Sunday to come to a play or a

Broadway presentation. They're disconnected from one another. There's not really genuine fellowship. You don't know if you'll see the same people from week to week.

There's no real connectivity or genuine relationship. So a lot of churches, institutions have had to create these things called community groups, hoping to facilitate some community.

But that even becomes awkward because now you're forcing people to connect and like jive together instead of like an authentic way of living amongst each other.

And so I I get it. So it seems here like he's addressing, you know, what his views on church is really supposed to be.

And the fact that, you know, church doesn't really seem that real because, you know, people seem to assemble together every week and really don't know each other.

But why is that? You know, it could be because, you know, this large consumer base issue, which he, you know,

Lecrae seems like he's aware of. It could also be because, you know, people are merely religious. You know, there's so many nominal

Christians today that just I'm a Christian because that's the context in which I grew up. Right. And they don't know

Christ at all. Right. That's not a body. So you just have a bunch of people that just do this because that's what they're used to.

And they don't really care about getting to know each other in biblical love because, well, they don't believe in Scripture truly in their heart.

It hasn't really transformed them, so they don't really act that way. It could also be because, you know, of what is being taught.

You know, maybe there's there's just people that are under weak emotional preaching, you know, superficial theology, you know, this emphasis on individualism.

You know, we live in the West and so much secularity inside of the church that, you know, the church congregation is, you know, not, you know, developmentally

Christian or Christlike. It's still about itself. Right.

The programs that force fellowship, as you know, he seems to mention here, are actually a result of the fact that there's no word of God being fed to people.

Therefore, they can never really know what unity in the spirit really is like. And if they don't know what the unity of the spirit is like, then they can't have a proper understanding of the lordship and headship of Jesus Christ over the church.

And for that matter, what the church is really supposed to be like. You know, in Western North America, you know, there's two prominent views competing right now and what the church is supposed to be like.

You either hold the perspective that the church is really a bomb shelter, which means it's the place you go to every week and to retreat from the world.

You go in and you get the renewal you need so that you can go back out into the world and endure.

The other view is that the church is more like an ammo depot. It's the place that you stop in to do to get what's necessary.

So you reload and you go back out to conquer and transform for Christ. Either of those views really just depends upon your eschatological views, but that's a different topic for another day.

You say in this segment that we just listened to, he also says that, you know, the church is so program centered instead of having like love filled disciples.

And I do agree with that because, you know, in Ephesians 4, it does say that, you know, ministers are given to the church as gifts to the church so that it can grow in maturity in Christ with biblical and spiritual unity.

I do disagree if what he's kind of hinting at it rather should be is some kind of like social justice, cultural do -gooders club with no gospel proclamation.

Because what we've seen in history is that theological liberalism has ultimately, you know, rejected doctrine for the sake of unity.

And we ultimately don't want that. And so I get it, you know, I mean, but when we're in a sense, we're like exiles.

You know, when the church was exiled, when they were scattered amongst the world, they just had to meet in somebody's house and like get together and get through in the text and make it happen.

And if you go to China, you're not going to see, you know, St. Emmanuel's Baptist Church.

You're going to see people in an apartment getting together on the low underground. And it's still effective.

And I know because I've been there and I've done it. Right. But, man, honor the

Lord, you know, honor God. It's not about like, oh, man, I didn't I haven't been to the institution with a good speaker in a long time.

It's kind of laughable because, you know, I don't really think Saint and Baptist should go on a church name.

But it seems like he's basically arguing here that the homestyle kind of church is really the real church that Jesus intended.

And this kind of leads me to think that this kind of logic and failed analysis of history might lead into, you know, the idea that the church is never really supposed to be innovative, meaning there's supposed to be no big buildings or developments.

You know, and that there's no need for modern day efficiencies, maybe like cars and boats and radio stations and television.

I mean, I'm sure he doesn't necessarily mean that or would go that far. But I mean, if he if he continues to think the way that he does in these comments, then he's not very far from those ideals, because there are people who do believe that.

But how can we avoid the pitfalls that he's actually talking about, though? You know, how can we avoid the pitfalls of modern

Western culturalism? Well, first of all, through scriptural worship, worship that is

God centered and comes out of the Bible and teaches us to conform to the word of God in his holiness.

We can also avoid these pitfalls through the biblical mandate of evangelism.

Instead of approaching people with this happy, sappy, sissified Jesus loves you gospel presentation, we can begin with what the apostles began with.

You know, Jesus has been divinely established as both Lord and Christ repent and believe.

We can avoid this through the cultural impact of Christ, which is to transform the culture because Christ is above the culture.

He's not apart from it. He is not the Christ of culture. He is above it. Culture is supposed to be directed towards him.

We can stay alert also on cultural trends and mantras and political issues and perspectives, because we're not just called to know what we believe, but we're supposed to be aware of what those around us believe so that we can correctly refute them.

He also mentions that we should honor God. And honestly, that makes me a little uncomfortable only because when you don't actually define what that means, it leaves the individual to define it himself.

You know, it is impossible to honor God unless you have a corporate body assembling together.

Now, obviously, this is not the first century where we just gather in whosoever's house.

This is the 21st century where we, you know, Christian Christianity is no longer an illicit religion.

We actually have the ability to buy property and designate that space and reserve it for the discipling of those that are in Christ.

No church is a legitimate church unless it has ordained leaders, structure, and liturgy. Just saying honor

God is very mystical. You might as well just say, you know, follow your heart. Whatever you feel like, you know,

God has defined church to be, that's what it is. You know, this produces isolated Christians and this cultural

Jesus that we have seen just, you know, minimize evangelism, focus on the biblical mandate, and what, you know, church is really supposed to be like, as it is defined in the

New Testament. When I'm saying deconstruction, well, I'll say this. When most millennials say deconstruction, what they're saying is they have decided to tear down their belief system.

And many of them are saying, hey, what does life without Jesus look like?

What is morality? What does marriage, all these particular things look like if I do away with this faith that I had in Jesus?

That's what is meant. And I would say I did that as well. There are a lot of pitfalls for me in doing that, that I can definitely get into.

But what I believe is healthy deconstruction is keeping

Christ as the foundation. He says he's the cornerstone. And then tearing down these walls around him that have been built by our societies and civilizations that have way more culture and tradition than they have truth in them.

So here we hear Lecrae saying basically, you know, healthy deconstruction would necessitate keeping

Jesus in the center. And of course, I can agree with that because the Bible says that the Bereans studied the scriptures daily to see if the things that were being said were true.

We need to keep Christ at the center when we're skeptical. He is the one that's—the Word of God is going to give us the guardrails for what we should and should not accept.

People who don't necessarily have this form of, quote -unquote, healthy deconstruction, they won't know what is and what is not the real

Jesus unless they are first immersed in the sanctifying truth of the Word of God. You see, what typically happens when people don't have some kind of boundaries to help them gauge and walk through things that might not necessarily be true is they drain into apostasy, into some form of skepticism.

And then they begin to doubt. They begin to mistrust. And then they begin to disconnect and ultimately grow hard towards anything that doesn't seem to give them the feeling of freedom.

And on this point right here, I believe, you know, Lecrae is—he's on point.

I would agree with what he just said in this segment. But let's continue to listen. Somebody may say, don't forsake—you know, the

Hebrew says, don't forsake the fellowship. And what the society is telling you is you didn't go to church on Sunday.

That's not what that means. It means don't isolate yourself from people who love Jesus and love you.

Well, not exactly. You see, the reference he's noting here is actually

Hebrews 10 .25, which is ultimately a warning towards those that are tempted to go back to the old covenant system.

Commentator Adam Clark on his commentary in the Bible in regard to this passage says, The church was now in a state of persecution, and therefore their meetings were most probably held in private for fear of persecution.

It seems as if some had deserted these meetings. They had given up these strengthening and instructive means, and others were in danger of following their example.

So it seems like this is directed towards potential apostates, hence the severity of the warnings.

I mean, the next verse literally says, you know, So it doesn't seem like this passage is really saying don't isolate yourself from people who love

Jesus and love you. It seems like the true meaning is, do not leave the new covenant means of grace, the eternal high priest, and the once -for -all sufficient sacrifice.

It doesn't mean you didn't go to church on Sunday. You don't, that's not what that means.

So that's what the culture has told you it meant, and they're wrong. Get rid of it. Deconstruct all these walls with asbestos and mold.

Tear them down, but stay on the foundation of Jesus and do your best to get back to the original intention of the scriptures, the ancient

Near East. You know, go back, start looking at the Hebrew context of things.

I appreciate what Lecrae is trying to say here. What he is suggesting we do is we do exegesis rather than eisegesis, which, you know, exegesis means to lead out of the text what is actually being said.

Eisegesis is bringing outside ideas into the text that aren't actually being said in the text.

And there's a difference between the two because it determines what the interpretation will be. Eisegesis is usually motivated by outside ideas, and they warp the text into whatever those outside ideas want them to be.

Exegesis is plainly just expositing what it is actually said by the biblical author.

And I commend Lecrae and what he says and what he said earlier when he said that, you know, we should keep

Jesus in the center of our skepticism. So that way we can, you know, have a healthy deconstruction, even though he admittedly said that he didn't do that at first and he did suffer for it.

I commend him for, you know, his confession there. But, you know, in his reference to, you know, keeping things in context, as he references

Hebrews 10 .25 here, I'm surprised that he actually didn't do the contextual thing in his interpretation.

Because the overarching principle that we find in Hebrews 10 .25 is stay faithful, be present for the exhortation of biblical truths, which are taught by those that are ordained to speak the word of God, which prevent apostasy.

Another commentator that I found in regard to this passage says, So is missing one service really, you know, all that bad?

Well, in context to Hebrews, you know, this was a sign of apostasy. Today, the context isn't necessarily the same.

You know, there's no persecution that would entice leaving church. I'm sure someone would disagree with that based on what you're actually making your observations from.

But, you know, Lecrae's purpose originally was that, you know, and bringing this about, was that Western society has made us believe that this means that you can't miss any church services or else you are compromising or something like that.

You know, he says that we ought to deconstruct all of it. But I have a question. Where does that actually stop?

You know, what is defining these things? You know, he mentions that we should study context, which is absolutely important.

But I find it kind of ironic how he didn't actually just do it just then. We have a faith that's been handed down from the ancient

Near East for generations. And then we started instituting all these random things in it that were never meant to be. You got

Constantine dabbling in it. You got, you know, the Americans, all these different people throwing seasonings and spices in it that were never supposed to be there.

And then handing over to you, like, say, here's Christianity. Well, when I take a bite, that is gross. I don't want it. I don't want it.

And I don't blame anybody else for not wanting it. So deconstruction is getting rid of all those excess ingredients and getting back down to the original recipe that was handed down 2 ,000 years ago.

So it seems like he was comparing like what Christianity is today to an original recipe that has been that has all these new additives to it that have ultimately subverted what it used to be.

You know, in passing, he mentioned that, you know, Constantine dabbled in it. You know, honestly, this is a passing comment that, if not correctly stated in its historical context, can become very deceiving to mean that Christianity has been utterly changed from what it used to be into this governmentally reconstructed institution where or which leads to other disasters

God didn't intend for the church to go down. You know, Constantine, according to my understanding, did not possess any theological knowledge enough to dictate

Christian truths. You know, his motives behind the Edict of Milan in 313 were purely political, self -serving reasons to, you know, for why he really recognized

Christianity as a faith that we should tolerate. This is the first time in history a governmental entity had, you know, been on the

Christian side. Necessarily, this brought forth a whole new paradigm that we've never encountered before, and it should be understood in that context.

But when you just passively say, you know, Constantine dabbled in it, now you're, you know, giving weight to all this theological liberalism that's still in existence in our day and still being promoted by people who say that ultimately we don't really know or have the true faith anymore because it's been changed so much.

Ironically, you know, he says that, you know, he doesn't want it. I don't understand how you can say he doesn't want it, because the version of Christianity that he is positing right now isn't the original either.

You know, that's what we tend to do is we create traditionalism in society that says, hey, you didn't do this.

It's not good anymore. I don't like it. He's not a good speaker. Some of the best leaders in Christian history weren't good speakers, but all you're looking for is an amazing orator.

I can give you a million people who can speak well. That doesn't mean they love Jesus. They can get up there and give you sound bites for days.

You're probably not going to learn your Bible, but that's what the tradition calls for.

So that's what we're doing. In this segment, it seems like Lecrae is saying that traditions have caused us to seek a certain type of church.

But obviously, Lecrae himself is seeking a specific type of church. Earlier, we mentioned, you know, that home -style kind of church, you know, the one that is kind of like less formal and a little more socially simplistic, right?

Nothing entirely wrong with traditions, as he even mentions, because we even see that in Scripture.

The Apostle Paul mentioned to the Thessalonian church about the traditions that he had passed down to them.

Nothing wrong with traditions. He mentions in this that it is traditionalism that is the thing that is wrong.

And I believe traditionalism can be sin in legalism, because it imposes certain things that are supposed to be preferences as actually weighty matters that change, maybe the nature and fellowship of the church, right?

Many people are plagued with traditions. We all have traditions. You know, we all have assumptions that we must filter and challenge by the

Word of God. Whether it's, you know, traditions and certain perspectives that cause us to uphold a certain kind of atmosphere we like, whether it's to pursue a certain kind of personality or preacher or get involved in a specific kind of social concern, whether we're seeking a specific type of benefit or service in a church or some kind of level of accountability, we all have these assumptions and traditions that we like and we hold to.

But it's really up to us to consecrate ourselves to the Word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to develop us and guide us through convictions that are biblically consistent with his will.

You know, a preacher once said, you know, you should go to the church that's closer to the Bible, not the one that's closer to your house.

And I think that's a very great advice. So I kind of want to end here because there's so much more that can be said.

But what I want you to take away from all of this is to know that, you know, deconstruction is real.

It happens more times than is actually reported. There's a right method to assess your religious context.

And, of course, as I've said already, that's by Scripture. You know, some professing

Christians run into problems in their, you know, walk, and they become unbelievers overnight.

Usually that just proves that they were never really consecrated to God in the first place, because if something can cause you to just, you know, reject the faith absolutely overnight, it means that you were never in Christ.

And, you know, that's a problem. When we run into issues and, you know, we become a little skeptical, what we should retreat to is the

Scripture, as the Bereans did, to see whether the things that are going on around us in our economy are actually true.

You know, seeking truth starts with a devotion to Christ. Asking questions is okay. Using our resources is okay.

I believe God blesses that. In Hebrews 6, 11, 6, it says that, you know, without faith it's impossible to please

God. You know, He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. God blesses diligence, and He has created the world in such a way that you are rewarded for your laziness.

So we have a personal responsibility there. What makes the Church a stable body ultimately is its head.

Through the person of Jesus Christ, the record of the Scriptures fully given to us, we have a defined, preserved body of truth as what is told to us in Jude 3.

We have structure and order. We have gifts given to the Church for its maturity. We have an objective, purposeful kingdom in which we can live and serve and worship our

God in the world. The Holy Spirit will ultimately call and preserve those that are His in the world as we remain faithful to our obligation to make disciples of all nations.

So, thank you once again for tuning in to Truology. My name is Belushi Prevalon. You can find me at DrBluetheTruologist on YouTube.

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Study of the Truth. I'll catch you next time. God bless. Truology is a podcast that seeks to equip, effect, and engage the world through Christ and His wonderful gospel of the kingdom, against which

He has promised that the gates of hell shall never prevail but increase by His government, His law, and grace, till it be presented a glorious church without spot or wrinkle.

If there's any fear, threat, or worry, remember that the one that has called you according to His purpose and grace has also promised that all enemies will soon be placed under His feet.

Now, I want you to believe that not because I said it or because it sounds really nice and spiritual, but primarily and wholeheartedly and only and biblically, because it's the truth.